Baggsnitch
by NeutralTerritory
Summary: Kara Poellnitz might be disabled, but could she play on House Pukwudgie's Quidditch team? She could probably beat the best Seeker, but with a "Mad Eye" like the late Alastor Moody's assisting her sight, would it be the right thing for her to do?


"There's no way you're gonna work out on any team that wants to win Quidditch," Maury Redstone said.

It wasn't the words he said, it was the way he said them.

She looked him dead in the eyes.

"We'll see about that."

Maury laughed his obnoxious laugh. He could have stuck his wand in his fat neck and used an Amplifying charm to make that fat laugh of his even bigger, but Kara Poellnitz felt like she could shut him up—if she had a chance.

"You can't do anything to me!" Maury shouted. "_Levicorpus!_"

"Ayeee!" Kara screamed as her body lost its weight and she upended. The movement was too sudden for her prosthetic's gripping spell to remain in contact. Her right leg flopped, fell out of her skirts, and made a hollow knocking sound as it landed. She shifted in the air so her skirt kept her covered, but hated that Ilvermorny's school uniform policy required girls to wear them.

"Who ever heard of a No-Maj like you playing Quidditch anyway?" Maury asked. Practically everybody else laughed, and Kara felt her face go hot.

"I am _not_ a No-Maj!" she shouted, taking a swing at the air.

"You might as well be," Maury said. "One eyed, one handed, and one legged! You don't have pure blood, you have pure ugly!"

"Oh yeah? Is that all you've got?" Kara swung again with her left arm—knowing it was only a residual limb—and Maury laughed again.

"Is that all you've got?" Maury laughed. "She asked if that was all I've got!"

Kara fished in her right pocket. The one thing she liked about the skirts was that they had big enough pockets for whatever she wanted to carry.

Her fingers closed around what had to be the shortest wand in Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:

Beech, six and a third inches, flexible, phoenix feather core.

She gave the wand a wave.

"_Finite!_" she shouted.

More than that—she flipped in the air as she did, and thrust her left leg down at the very moment her foot was flat and facing the ground.

It wasn't just that she nailed the landing, it looked like Kara had simply stepped right out of the levitating spell without any effort.

"Ooooooh!" the knot of students all said.

She watched Maury take one step back.

"Fight, fight, fight!" the knot of students started shouting.

But Kara wasn't interested in a fight, until—

"_Cruc—_"

—Kara whipped her wand round in her right hand and shouted "_Protego!_"

Maury's spell struck the protection spell and flew off at an erratic angle. A few students ducked the ricochet.

And that was the moment the headmaster—Agilbert Fontaine—chose to appear.

"Mister Redstone, Miss Poellnitz, wands down, and come over here."

"But she was about—"

"Quiet!" Fontaine's voice boomed, "I said 'come over here,' not 'gripe.' Now, come over here. The rest of you go to your classes."

Kara was already on the ground, adjusting her right leg first—her wand on the ground beside her. Seeing this, Headmaster Fontaine didn't move. Maury kicked at the pebbles on the walk, and a few rattled against Kara's wand, which she snatched up and stuffed into her pocket.

"Do you need help?" one of the boys asked.

Kara pushed him aside, not roughly, but with just enough pressure to get him to scoot away from her like she wanted. She stood, straightened, smoothed her skirt, and fixed her robes.

"I'm fine, thank you," she said.

And she walked toward Headmaster Fontaine.

She noted the way Maury held his head down, so she chose not to do the same, and kept her chin up.

Still, she followed the Headmaster, and hoped she wasn't about to get docked another fifty points. House Pukwudgie was suffering, and everybody blamed _her_, even though she routinely wound up in stupid fights like this.

Maury, of House Thunderbird, seemed far more contrite than she looked on the outside, but she hated herself.

Fontaine led them to his office, and with a wave of the wand, opened the door. Inside, Fontaine waved his wand again to slam and latch it behind them.

The stone and wood floor was covered with padded carpet that called to mind that old adage: "the thicker the padding of the carpet you've been called on, the worse the trouble you're in."

Through her good eye, Kara detected the soft glimmer of a penseive.

"Am I to assume the two of you forgot the rules, and decided to fight on the grounds _again_?"

Fontaine seated himself behind his oaken desk.

Maury didn't look up, so Kara drew her wand.

"Do you think that's a wise idea?" he asked her.

She flipped it in her hand, and offered it to him handle-first.

"Prior—um—" she stammered. "The prior thing—the—"

"I see your wand," Fontaine said, "what are you trying to do with it?"

She couldn't remember the words now—the stupid word _Protego_ was stuck in her mind, but she knew it was wrong.

"Sir, the browsing history?" she said, "from No-Maj Studies—but with the wand. The thing like the back button."

Fontaine looked at her with a strange expression, smiled, then took her wand. He drew his own and pointed at it:

"Aha. You mean '_Priori Incantato_,'" he said.

"That," she said as she pointed to her wand.

He performed the spell, and her "protego" spell came out.

"So you think that protecting yourself in an infraction isn't something your opponent might also do?"

"I wasn't going to fight him. Sir, what's the one before that?"

He repeated the spell.

Her "finite" spell came out.

"He was making me levitate."

"Maury, your wand please." He dropped Kara's wand on the desk and held out his hand.

She watched Maury produce his wand in her good eye.

Headmaster Fontaine tested Maury's wand—which was at least a good four inches longer than hers.

Ever since she received it after the Sorting Ceremony, she was always jealous. Hers was so short, like a handicap meant she deserved something smaller. His was of hawthorn, and she had no idea what was in its core—it obviously wasn't phoenix feather, or it would've done that thing Harry Potter's wand once did to Voldemort's wand.

Her instructors told her that shorter wands were much better for precise work—not dueling—but the way she got into fights, and the fact she was still getting used to _magic_, and the damage it caused, seemed to make her think somebody was lying.

Somewhere way back, her older brother picked on her and called her a Squib, a No-Maj born of magical parentage. Though they weren't mean about it, Kara knew how Mom and Dad went on about how much better he'd been, and how much earlier they'd discovered his magical talents.

It was only after all her scars healed that she proved she could _use_ magic, and that came only _after_ the letter arrived—for _Kara_—the one delivered by _owl_, from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"These spells do bear out that you were the aggressor, Maury," Headmaster Fontaine said, "but fighting on the grounds is still a punishable offense, Kara—even if you were defending yourself.

Kara looked down at her feet.

"Miss Poellnitz: ten points from Pukwudgie should be enough," he said. "Do better to avoid conflicts."

Maury's gaze flitted toward her.

"And I think _thirty points_ would let House Thunderbird know I mean business when I say 'no dueling or fighting on the grounds.' Those are the rules."

Kara saw the deduction wipe the unseen smirk off Maury's face.

"Maury, you should learn to treat people the way you'd like to be treated—or would you rather I try to levitate you, and use the Cruciatus Curse on you?

Kara saw Maury flinch.

"Take your wands, and don't let me catch either of you stepping one _toe_ out of line."

"No, sir," Kara said first.

"No, sir," Maury repeated a moment later.

"You're free to go."

Maury took his wand, and Kara took hers. She paused outside the door to straighten up her leg.

"One-eye," Maury whispered as she stepped out.

The heavy wood and frosted glass door closed behind her.

"One," she said, pointing at her good eye, "two," she said, pointing at her right eye. "Two eyes. I figured you would have learned to count in Boston Public Schools, wouldn't you?"

She walked off before he could answer. But it was a rickety walk, like something was wrong with her leg. She felt like she needed to adjust the spell, but she wasn't about to waste time doing it right there in the hallway.

_Potions Class_, she thought, and then moved as quickly as she could. She had to go to the other end of the Third Wing. Her stupid right leg clomped even after she paused to adjust it again. She hated the ungainly feel of it, considering that before she ever learned about magical illnesses, she could do cartwheels.

Unlike her brother—who discovered his talents early—she discovered she was magical after she came down with Sporple pox. The disease sent her to the hospital with a fever and symptoms that rivaled the worst case of Dragon pox, and the kind of damage that required amputations. She fell ill with all her limbs and both eyes, and woke up with one hand, one leg, and one eye.

"You'll never play Quidditch, Poellnitz," Maury's voice echoed after her. He took off down a different hallway.

"We'll see about that," she said, more to herself than to anybody else. It was too bad her brother Nathan was a Sixth-Year, and uninterested in Quidditch. She was too young to play with him when he was younger and still cared about it, and when she was old enough to play with him, he'd already lost all interest.

If she made the team, she realized she would play _against_ his team, since he was in House Wampus, not House Pukwudgie.

Getting to the Third Wing wasn't exactly easy—especially since it involved steps. Lots of them. But there was the option of taking the long way around, if Kara wanted to end up late. She was sure there was another way, but this was only her second year at Ilvermorny, and she wasn't about to start exploring and get lost again between classes.

She took the steps down to the Third Wing as hurriedly as she could—past the grumpy looking statue of a pukwudgie whose visage faced the corridor that led back to her house's common area. The statue at the far end would deny entrance by drawing her bow at anyone who didn't have the password.

Beside the grumpy pukwudgie was a painting of several witches and wizards who looked like the previous prefects, headmasters and headmistresses of Ilvermorny, and they stood around a fountain, chatting about different aspects of the fountain. There were four colors of water spouting upward.

"And of course, Pukwudgie has the lowest fountain right now—no thanks to you!" one lady said.

"Oh yeah?" Kara shouted back at the painting. "We'll get it back."

"You and whose army?" a different headmaster asked her.

"House Pukwudgie, of course," Kara said.

She couldn't help feeling silly whenever she said that name. She knew the name "Pukwudgie" was derived from the Wampanoag Native American language, and it always bothered her the way all the Native American tribes had been uprooted from the land and moved to reservations. It made her feel like she owed them a debt she could never repay. Despite the School's preservation of wandless magic, there was a great deal of magical knowledge that was lost forever on the Trail of Tears.

She wondered if a cure for Sporple pox was one of them.

"You have to admit, she's got spunk," a voice echoed after her as she hobbled up the last staircase.

Even taking the shorter route, she caught a glimpse of Maury—who arrived at Potions ahead of her by several steps.

"You're late. What took you so long?" he said. He had sweat under his arms, and he was visibly panting.

"Am _not_ late," she retorted.

Inside the classroom, she retreated to the back corner like she always did—so the other members of her house wouldn't see her, or worse, make eye contact.

"She's lost us another ten points, Carmine," one of them said.

"We need to _do_ something about her, Rod."

"Yeah, but what, Carmine?"

"Sssh!" Liseth whispered, "Kara's right over there."

Avi Lieberman slumped down on the stool beside her at the lab bench.

She slung her pack over the back of the seat, fished inside for her notebook, and steadied it with her residual limb. Once she had it opened, she selected a parchment, then noticed what one of her other parchments said:

"Forgetfulness Potion!"

"What?" Avi asked.

"Today's when we have to prepare it," she said.

"Oy," Avi said.

"Oy's right," Maury shouted across the room.

Avi looked at Kara, and she caught that he was eyeing another workbench—possibly to get up and move. Her good eye let her know just as he shifted his weight, and she put her right hand on his left shoulder.

"Stay put," she said. "We'll need to pair off anyway."

Professor Blossom McMasters strode to the front of the room, pointed her wand at the chalk and muttered something only she could hear.

"I like how she does that," somebody said.

A piece of chalk rose from the gutter of the blackboard and began to move across the blackboard. Soon, the list of ingredients for the potion was fully written.

"All right, everybody, good morning! It's time to start brewing your forgetfulness potions. Pair off in twos, please."

Avi shifted in his seat again.

"You're already where you need to be seated Mr. Lieberman. House Pukwudgie favors healers. The rest of you: set up your workspace, pair off, and remember that we studied the preparation of this potion last class period. You'll be using your notes, not your textbooks, so follow your flow charts."

Avi made eye contact with Kara.

"Oy."

"Do you say that all the time?" Kara asked.

"I do when it applies," Avi replied.

"Come on," Kara said, "what could go wrong?"

"The two of us _together_? We'll blow this place up!"

A few of the other kids laughed.

Kara fished out her flow chart labeled "Forgetfulness Potion," smoothed the parchment with her left elbow, and then weighted it down with her inkwell.

"It's not going to be any worse than failing," Kara said.

"Your cure for boils almost was," Avi said. "We must have lost a million points on that one!"

"Hazel bumped my arm, and the cauldron went back on the fire at the wrong time."

"But you're supposed to tend your potion—that's part of the point!"

"You try not moving when somebody pushes you," Kara said. She gave him a nudge and he shifted to his feet.

"See? Besides, she apologized for it."

"Okay," Avi said, "So let's get started."

Kara and Avi collected the ingredients from the cabinet and brought them back to the work bench. She set up the bracket to support the cauldron and carefully tested and tightened the fastener so it wouldn't budge. Avi propped the cauldron above the burner.

As Hazel pushed by on her way to the cabinet, Kara turned her good left eye in Hazel's direction, and saw nothing was amiss.

"Don't do that—that's creepy," Avi said.

"Do you want me to watch over the potion or not?"

"There's nothing un-creepy about having that mad-eye."

"It's not called a _mad-eye_," Kara said, "It's called an Oculus Orb."

Kara wrapped her right hand around the bottle of Lethe River Water and pushed up at the stopper with her thumb. It didn't budge.

"Here, let _me_ do that," Avi said, "that's not safe."

"First I'm creepy, and now I'm an invalid?"

"No!" Avi said, "It's just—" he stammered.

"It's just _what_, Mister Lieberman?" McMasters asked him. Avi looked like he'd jump out of his clothes.

McMasters raised her voice:

"Go ahead—everybody stop and listen for Avi, please?"

Avi flushed red.

"Go on," Kara said. She nudged him.

"Lethe River Water is already potentially hazardous to your memory," he said, "that's why it's used in the potion. You'd need more than what's in a bottle to shut down your body—but it can make your body forget to work properly."

"That's correct, Mr. Lieberman," McMasters said. "That's why the stopper screws in tightly. Be careful when you open your bottles."

"Oh," Kara said. She pushed back her shirt sleeve to expose her skin, pressed the soft part of her left elbow atop the stopper, and then used her right hand to carefully twist the bottle in the reverse direction. She stopped when she felt the slight wobble of the stopper.

"Hey!" Avi said.

"Here, Avi," Kara said, "Be careful, it's almost open." She lifted the bottle and passed it to Avi.

Avi gave the stopper a couple of easy turns and it came free.

"Good teamwork: Five points to House Pukwudgie," McMasters said.

From across the room, Kara saw Maury look daggers at her. She gave him the sweetest wave she could with her right hand—a move she remembered seeing on a No-Maj TV show called _Babylon 5_.

Then she turned to the flow chart and started reading with her right eye. Her good eye—her Oculus Orb—caught Maury looking annoyed while he tried to get the stopper undone on his Lethe River Water.

They sat and carefully brewed the potion, taking care to stir in the appropriate direction, and simmer it for as long as the instructions said before following the next directions.

Kara gently tipped the mortar with mixture of crushed Standard Ingredient and mistletoe berries, and shook it cautiously to see that it sifted well and that the grains were medium-fine. She took a pinch and dropped it onto her flowchart.

"What are you doing?"

"See those dots I drew? That's textbook medium-fine grains." She let her good eye focus more and she could make out the coarse texture of the individual particles.

"Okay, just two pinches."

Kara swiveled her good eye, and Avi flinched away from her.

"That's creepy."

She funneled her parchment over the mortar and poured the pinch of powder back in.

"I'm checking for people moving around. Okay. One pinch. Two pinches."

"Why does this require stirring in only one direction?" Avi asked.

"It's got something to do with magic," Kara said. She gave the concoction five stirs anti-clockwise, removed the stirrer, and watched the potion turn orange.

"We did it!" Avi said.

"Not yet," Kara said, "you do the wand wave."

"Oy," he said.

"Do it. This is a teamwork thing."

Avi took his wand and checked his and Kara's flowchart instructions. Both of their charts had arrows telling how to do that move. He gave his wand a wave. The cauldron sat still, but Kara knew the potion was complete.

"Now we let it mature."

They put their potions in the "product" cabinet, which was divided into partitions by year, and by student names. Avi scrawled their names on a bit of parchment and slid it into the slot over their partition. Ms. McMasters locked the product cabinet.

As they left Potions, Maury pushed past them.

"House Puke-Wedgie favors healers," he said. "You should try healing yourselves up from all that ugliness!"

Some of the other students laughed.

"Let me at him!" Avi shouted. She saw him fish in his pocket for his wand, but Kara was not in the mood to watch a fight—or get dragged into another one. She put out her right arm to keep him a step behind her while other students pushed past.

"He's just mad because he couldn't figure out the stopper on his bottle!" Kara said.

"What did you say?" Maury shouted back at her.

But his face was clearly reddening.

She smiled sweetly, and gave that little wave, and remembered Vir Cotto.

"I'm gonna make you regret—"

One of the other members of House Thunderbird grabbed Maury by the shoulder and pulled him down the corridor.

"Don't start anything! You _lost_ us thirty points today!"

Kara followed Maury and the others but hung back with Avi.

"Thanks for nothing."

He stuffed his wand back into his pocket.

"Thank _you_ for good teamwork. We're only five points behind where we started because we worked together."

Avi's cloudy expression brightened.

"You're right."

"By the way, that was a great save," Kara said.

"Save?"

"When Professor McMasters came up behind you."

Avi grinned. "That was just quick thinking. I had my notes out and I could see them. I was reading it right off the page."

After dropping their packs off in the Pukwudgie Dormitories before lunch, they headed toward the Main Hall, and the Pukwudgie table.

"So," Avi said as they walked, "nobody ever told me what happened to you."

"What do you mean 'what happened' to me?"

"Were you in a duel or something?"

"What do you mean: 'was I in a duel?'" Kara asked. "We're just Second Year students. What could we do to anybody?"

"I mean—" he stammered, "—the hand and foot and eye that people always pick on you about."

Kara looked at him, but her good eye sized him up better than she realized it could. It showed her Avi's eyes, and focused in on his pores and other features, before focusing back on him as a whole.

She stopped walking just outside the Main Hall, where the sound of kids and instructors heading to lunch seemed to fade into the background. He hung back with her as two other students walked by.

"You really want to know?" she said, but it was more of a statement than a question. Avi faced her.

"Sure," he said. "I get sick of hearing all the stupid rumors. Some people say you accidentally turned a Boggart into a Dementor and it sucked the life out of you."

Kara shook her head.

"Oy," she said.

Avi laughed.

"No, seriously. People have said all kinds of stupid things."

She examined him again, and it was hard for her to focus for a moment. He was really being nice, not just timid.

She smiled:

"You get to be the first to hear it from me, then," she said.

They took their seats at the Pukwudgie table.

Avi told her about getting his first letter:

"I was so excited, and I was jumping up and down, and it fell right into our campfire. I tried to yank it out, but I knocked a log off the fire, and it rolled three or four feet away, and almost caught a sleeping bag on fire. We were so busy stamping out sparks from that log, that we forgot and let the letter get burned."

"So, then what happened?"

"We all thought that was it," Avi said. "Our parents aren't magical, so we figured if you burn something up, it's gone for good.

"Then another owl came the next morning!"

"That's cool," Kara said.

"Todd—my younger brother—might be magical too. If he gets in, he'll be here next year."

"I hope he gets in."

"You'd never believe an ordinary family like ours would be able to do anything magical," he said. "We're a family of klutzes."

"Don't say that," Kara said.

"Actually, one of my grandparents was in one of those old movies where you watch people fall down and drop things. Slapstick."

"Everybody thought I was a No-Maj," Kara said. "My brother Nathan sometimes picked on me for finding out about magic from catching Sporple pox. I woke up from being sick for so long and a couple months later, my letter came."

"Sporple pox is a bad way to find out about anything," Avi said.

"We're supposedly 'pure blood,' but Dad and Mom think that went to Nathan's head. He's obsessed with tracking the family genealogy back to Europe."

"You're pure-blood?"

"It's nothing," Kara said, "don't obsess over it. Remember, the No-Maj attempts to continue the royal bloodlines in Europe? It produced genetic mutations like hemophilia.

"Being a pure blood witch or wizard doesn't make you any more or less special than being a No-Maj."

"But No-Majes can't do magic."

"It doesn't matter. Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, and Frederick Douglass are all No-Majes. They aren't any better or worse than Albus Dumbledore or Isolt Sayre."

Avi nodded.

"I guess that makes sense," he said.

"Mom and Dad always say 'your blood's purest when your heart is pure.'"

Avi smiled.

"That sounds a little over the top, though," he said. "It makes you sound like some kind of goody-goody-two-shoes."

Kara laughed.

"It kinda does, doesn't it? But I hope Nathan doesn't let the whole family blood thing go to his head."

"So, what was Maury picking on you about?"

"I was looking at the Quidditch tryout signs," Kara said.

"Quidditch?" Avi asked her.

"Yeah, Quidditch," she said. She explained the wizarding sport.

"I know what it is," Avi said, "I just didn't think that would be your 'thing.'"

"Just because I'm different doesn't mean I'm going to sit in front of the fireplace in the common room knitting all day," Kara said.

"I didn't mean it like _that_," he said.

"Okay, what _did_ you mean?"

"I'm not trying to be mean, but I thought you'd have an unfair advantage with your Oculus Orb. I saw how you were watching Hazel—right through the back of your head.

"It's cool, but it's never going to not be a little creepy."

Kara's eyes went wide, and she felt that uncomfortable feeling of the orb shifting in her left socket. It was bewitched to avoid that sort of thing, but the spell wasn't as strong as the gripping spell on her leg. Her Orb wouldn't fall out just from moving around, but she always worried about losing it at the wrong time.

Although she didn't like the look or the feel of the external retention strap, it was the kind of thing she'd have to get used to if she wanted to play Quidditch. Quick movements while the Orb was shifting could dislodge it—and she imagined taking a bludger hit and having it get lost.

But the thought still took her aback.

"You'd be an amazing Seeker," Avi said.

"But you're right," Kara said, "I can't do it."

"Sure you can," somebody said from behind, and it startled Kara.

It was Mikkea Dorset—the Pukwudgie Quidditch Captain.

Kara shook her head:

"No. Sorry. It was a bad idea. I'm not going to the tryouts."

But Mikkea smoothed out her parchment on the table. Kara saw the list of names—last names—written on the parchment, under the heading "Seeker."

Kara swallowed hard as her good eye focused on the names:

_ D. Chen_

_ S. Heller_

_ M. Yazzie_

It saw right through the parchment fold.

_K. Poellnitz_ was right there—near the top of the list!

Mikkea smiled:

"I've already got you down," Mikkea said. She pocketed the parchment, "come out to the Quidditch pitch this Saturday, first thing."

"You can't be serious," Kara said, "I just said I can't do it!"

"We'll see about that, Kara," Mikkea said. She got up and strode away faster than Kara could follow, but her good eye followed Mikkea out of the Main Hall and off toward one of the other wings.

"You didn't sign up, did you?"

"No," Kara said, "Mikkea already had my name down."

She refocused a moment later when Avi scooped up another buffalo wing just before Headmaster Fontaine waved his hands, and the food vanished.

Kara recalled stories her parents mentioned about house elves, and an organization called S.P.E.W. at Hogwarts. That was a few years ago. She had a feeling if there were elves in the basement at Ilvermorny, they'd be cleaning up all the dishes too. She hoped they were being treated well—then realized she could just focus through the floor. But the distance must have been farther than she thought, and she lost detail and just saw warm bodies moving around.

"Want one?" Avi said, holding out a drumstick he must have rescued just before it disappeared. It was right in the focus of her good eye, and she could see its microscopic details.

She accepted the drumstick and munched on it as they headed for the Dormitory to get their packs before going to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"I've got to get out of being in the tryouts," Kara said as they reached their Common Room.

Avi took his bones over toward the fireplace.

"Don't do that," Kara said. "We can wrap them up in parchment and throw it all in the compost bin in Herbology."

"That's a good idea."

After getting her pack and parchment, she wrapped up her drumstick bone with the bones Avi had picked clean, and folded the bundle tight.

Kara stuffed the bundle into her pack where it wouldn't unfold and make a mess.

They arrived at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom just in time for Maury to show up:

"Hey, Puke Wedgies!" he said.

"Blunder Turds!" Avi shouted back.

"Ay," Professor Smith said as he stared down at the two of them getting ready to square off, "No fighting in the hallways!"

There was commotion as Avi and Maury pushed each other on their way into the classroom.

"If I said 'no fighting in the hallways,' to you," Professor Smith said, "what do you think that means about fighting in the classroom?"

He stepped in with a wave of his hand that wandlessly pushed both of them apart from one another.

"That's enough!"

They both seemed ready to pounce again.

"Seriously, guys, save your energy. We're beginning duels, so we'll be going down to the practice room."

And so the students got back up from their seats and took the stairs to the lower level of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom—the spacious floor where they could practice spells with enough room to move. The center of the floor was a thick mat done in cranberry and blue, the Ilvermorny school colors. Tapestries backed with padding lined the walls, and each one had a House Symbol embroidered in the center.

"Avi, Maury, since you seem inclined to fight each other today, you'll square off first. Prepare to duel."

The two boys stood on the mat, bowed to one another, produced their wands, and marched to opposite ends of the mat.

"On three, each of you is going to produce the Disarming Charm."

Kara knew not to mention that nobody knew the Disarming Charm. Professor Smith preferred to teach methods, not just spells, and that meant they learned the spell by doing it. They'd go upstairs after using and practicing the spell, and take detailed notes.

So he showed them the wand gesture, without the words to the spell or intent to cast—since some spells could be done without using words or wands—and once he felt they were familiar with the method, he taught them the incantation:

"_Expelliarmus,_" Kara tried the word as Professor Smith had them repeat it with their hands and wands down, and no intent to move. That meant the words wouldn't produce a spell.

Avi repeated the word a few times. But he also fidgeted with his right hand—his wand hand—and flicked his wrist, and nearly launched himself into the air. His right arm wrenched up as he sprawled backward on the mat on his back, and his wand twirled back down and landed on him.

"Yeow!" Professor Smith shouted, then clapped, "Mister Lieberman! That one had mo_men_tum!"

The class erupted in laughter. Kara had to admit, it was funny, and Avi even smiled as he stood back up and pretended to dust himself off.

"Two points to House Pukwudgie for inventing a new way to use a standard spell."

Kara glanced to Maury, who gave her a nasty look.

She gave him that "sweetie" wave.

By the end of the class, Kara was not so happy. A few students had launched one another across the room, and she kept being on the receiving end. She hated the part where they learned by dueling, but she understood why. Since He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was once such a problem in Europe, Ilvermorny reacted by requiring students be capable of producing each and every DADA spell before passing.

The most Kara even inflicted was getting Miranda Sheridan's wand to wobble slightly, before being catapulted again. This time was the hardest she'd fallen, losing her leg and eye in the process.

She did her awkward crawl to her leg and pulled it on as a couple students scrambled away nearby.

"Hey! Give that _back!_" Avi shouted.

Kara looked about—then realized she didn't have her Oculus Orb. The Oculus Orb could be bewitched to see things even when it was loose, but it was an exceedingly complex spell, and it required an experienced Opthalmancer.

"Ay. Who has Miss Poellnitz's left eye?" Professor Smith asked.

There was a look on Maury's face that Kara didn't need her good eye to discern. A couple of other Thunderbird students stood close by, and Maury put his hands behind his back.

"I'm not going to ask again," Professor Smith said. "Maury?"

He showed his empty hands.

Kara finished strapping on her leg.

"Kara?" Professor Smith reached down to her, "Let me teach you a special method. It's called a Summoning Charm."

"Thanks. I can stand up though," Kara said.

She refused Professor Smith's hand and pushed herself up to stand. Her blouse was coming untucked, and her sweater vest was rumpled.

Professor Smith leaned close to her and cupped his hands over her right ear:

"Okay. Don't think about doing anything magical, but take your wand and flick it in a clockwise half-circle, going from nine to three."

She held her wand out and flicked it.

"Little tighter."

She did it again.

"Like this," he said, and moved her right wrist through the arc.

She made the move.

"Again."

She made the move.

"Again, but a little more curvy—hey—you got this."

She made the move.

"And when you do, clear your head, think about exactly what you want, say what it is after you say the word: '_Accio_,' and then you do that little move with the wand."

"So it would be—?"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Professor Smith said, "Don't say it. Not yet. But it's your eye—your Oculus Orb, right?"

She nodded.

He cupped his hands over her ear again: "Okay, now: This is Fourth-Year stuff, so don't go pickin' fights, or throwin' ya weight around or nothing after this, okay?"

Kara nodded.

"Okay."

"Now. Whoever's holding Kara's eye thingy better not hold it too tight. Miss Poellnitz is gonna demonstrate."

He stepped back.

"Go."

Kara focused on what she wanted: not to be in the Quidditch tryout—then remembered to clear her head. She thought of the Oculus Orb, and its electric blue iris.

She took her stance, spoke, and waved her wand:

"_Accio Oculus Orb!_"

Lenny O'Neill's right hand flew up, the Oculus Orb whipped loose, and came zipping across the room. Kara reached out her left arm and her right hand to try to catch it, but the flying object zinged her right in the vee of her sweater vest, rebounded upward as she flinched, and then bounced on the mat beside her.

Everybody laughed, and Maury pointed at her:

"Puke Wedgie!"

But Professor Smith smiled down at Kara:

"And three points to House Pukwudgie for casting some serious—I mean Fourth Year Magic. Good Job!"

He initiated a slow clap as Kara collected herself, and plucked her Oculus Orb from the mat.

"All right, enough practice, everybody. Now, let's get that all committed to memory. Upstairs."

The students returned to their desks and Kara scrawled notes as quickly she could with her right hand, before switching parchments and jotting down the other spell—a Summoning Charm. Maybe she couldn't avoid getting knocked flat by the Disarming Charm, but she sure as heck could snatch back whatever was hers.

After class, she dutifully rinsed her eye socket, and washed her Oculus Orb in the first floor girl's bathroom, before popping it back in. And she adjusted her leg so it didn't feel so awkward.

"That was cool!" Avi said, "what kind of spell was that?"

"Professor Smith called it a Summoning Charm," Kara said.

"That might help you if your leg comes off," he said.

"I hadn't thought of that," Kara said.

But as she and Avi headed toward Herbology, she realized something else. She could potentially cheat at Quidditch, Oculus Orb or not, and she didn't want to do that.

Before Professor Danielle De Leon arrived in the greenhouses, Kara dumped the parchment and bones in the compost bin. She took extra care to avoid the tentacle-like vine that sprouted in the compost. It reached for her hand as she lifted the lid. Once the vines tore open the parchment and a venus flytrap-like mouth found the bones, the vines slithered away. She heard a contented munching sound come from the bin as she shut the lid.

"Good afternoon, everyone," Professor De Leon greeted the students. "Scourgify," she waved her wand at the worktable and watched as the clods of dirt and bits of leaf clippings vanished.

"That's better. Today we'll be studying how to plant Shrivelfigs. Does anybody have any questions?"

Kara timidly lifted her hand.

"Where do Shrivelfigs come from?"

"A good question," Professor De Leon said. "The plant's natural range is in Abyssinia, where the best specimens can be found—but some professional Herbologists have noted specimens that might have been imported into Central America. There's been a formal investigation into whether they are a separate species, or whether they are invasive—perhaps transported by witches and wizards for ornamental use, or mistaken for a similar nonmagical plant by No-Maj horticulturists.

"The climate here in Massachusetts is too cold for them to survive outside the greenhouses, although No-Maj scientists believe the range of the Shrivelfig could change as a result of climate change."

De Leon showed them how to pot the Shrivelfigs and they spent the rest of the class potting plants, taking notes on caring for the plant, and writing down the uses of its fruit in potions.

After pulling off her glove and work shirt and returning them to the cabinet after class, Kara almost caught up with the other Pukwudgie students on their way back to the common room. But the door closed just a tad too fast, leaving her to face the barbed arrow drawn by the Pukwudgie statue.

"Password?"

Kara thought for a bit until she recalled the password.

"Essence of Brimblewort," she said with confidence.

"Usage?"

Kara sighed.

"Paleomancy Potion: Paleoenvironmental indicator for detecting magic adsorption—"

But before Kara finished the long-winded definition, the statue nodded, lowered her arrow, and allowed the door to open.

"Enter"

"—found in certain fossilized specimens."

"We still need to do something," she overheard Carmine and Rod chatting, as she headed to her room to put away her bag.

"But Mikkea said she could try out for the Quidditch team," Rod said.

"It doesn't matter. She's losing points left and right!"

"But we've recovered."

"What happens tomorrow, and the day after that?"

"Stop worrying," Liseth said, "It's still early."

Kara knew they were talking about her.

As much as she thought it was a good idea to get out of earshot—maybe take a book down to the Main Hall and just study in peace and quiet until it was time for dinner, or go look up a random subject in the Library, Kara stood still beside the hallway leading to the girls' dormitories. There was a scrap of parchment on the table between them, and she could read it:

"Puke Wedgies!"

It had a picture of her hanging upside down in the air surrounded by other kids.

She stormed away and slammed the door to the dormitory bedroom she shared with three other girls.

"Hey, noisy! Don't do that!" Ryanne shouted.

"Sorry," Kara said. She slumped on her bed and threw her pack on the floor.

"I bet you're annoyed at that stupid picture, aren't you?"

Kara rolled over and propped herself up on her elbows to look out the window. The posture was much more comfortable when she used to have two hands to rest her head. She remembered hearing that the Dark Lord gave Peter Pettigrew a magical hand, but if that magical hand came from Voldemort, the magic was darker than a black hole.

Ryanne came up beside her:

"That's just somebody trying to give you their bad day, Kara," she said.

Ryanne was a head taller than Kara, despite being the same age. She had gorgeous platinum blond hair that looked completely different from the tangled curly hair Kara's head sported. Her slender build made Kara's body seem chubby by comparison. Her pale skin mismatched Kara's deep tan, and her green eyes seemed almost unnatural. She had a southern accent, and seemed distant when she wasn't in her knot of friends.

Kara looked at Ryanne through her good eye, and wished Oculus Orbs could be made with brown irises. The Ophthalmancer who made hers said it couldn't be done with current magic.

"Yeah, I know," Kara said.

"Don't let them do it to you."

"I try not to," Kara said. "But _I_ was the one floating upside down this morning. And Headmaster Fontaine thought _I_ was fighting. I just ended the spell and tried to protect myself."

Ryanne nodded.

"It hurts when people think you're part of the problem, doesn't it."

"Yeah," she said.

"I heard Mikkea thinks you could be a Seeker," Ryanne said.

"I can't do it," Kara said. She felt like her entire day involved little bits of her heart getting torn off.

"Why not?" Ryanne asked. "I think it'd be awesome!"

"I'd be cheating," Kara said. "My Oculus Orb could probably spot a Golden Snitch a mile away. And Professor Smith—"

"He's so cute!" Ryanne said.

"He looks like an actor from some movies," Kara said. "But you saw me do that Fourth Year Summoning Charm. People could cheat at Quidditch with that.

"I can't play Quidditch," Kara said. "As soon as I find Mikkea, I need to tell her."

"I don't think you'd be cheating," Ryanne said. "Mikkea's a Fourth Year. She probably already knows that Summoning Charm forward and backward."

Kara stared out the window.

"No," she said, as she rolled over and sat up, "You follow football, don't you?"

There was a poster of an American Football player over Ryanne's bed.

Ryanne laughed:

"A little bit," she said.

"Players get thrown out if they cheat, don't they? I don't want that to happen to us."

"That doesn't mean you can't try out," Ryanne said.

Kara smirked.

"No, because if I cheat, it'd look better than the other players. People would think I'm trying to prove something anyway. It'd hurt their feelings if they thought I was trying out and giving up a spot on the team just to give somebody else a chance."

Ryanne nodded.

"Okay. If that's how you feel."

Kara stood up and looked at herself in the full-length mirror on the wall.

"Magic mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one in sports," she said.

Ryanne laughed.

For the first time, Kara felt like she knew Ryanne a little bit better.

She headed for the door.

"Wait up, where are you going?" Ryanne asked.

"To go find Mikkea."

"Listen," Ryanne said, "If you ever want to hang out, have you ever played Blasting Skrewts?"

"What's that?"

"It's a new game like Exploding Snap."

"That sounds fun," Kara said, but then she shook her head. "But no. My eye. I could cheat at that."

"You could just take it out," Ryanne said. "Put it back in when the game's over? I could check to see if the cards can block that?"

"I feel like I kind of need both eyes to play Quidditch, though. I still need to tell Mikkea."

"That's a good point. But maybe we could play Blasting Skrewts later? It'll be fun."

"Sure," Kara said. But she still didn't feel like she should.

"After dinner, in the Common Room, okay?"

"Okay," Kara said as she was halfway out the door.

She felt like Ryanne was just trying to make her feel better. But she stopped and looked back:

"Thanks."

But she could not find Mikkea at any time that Mikkea wasn't busy. She was chatting with team members who'd carried over from last year, and discussing things with her friends, and when Kara crossed paths with Mikkea in the Common Room after dinner, Mikkea was already wearing pajamas and heading to bed.

It was the same on other days, and Mikkea seemed content to allow Kara to just blend into the background. She couldn't catch up to her for the next three days—and on one of them, she admittedly forgot. Fortunately, the girls had forgotten to play Blasting Skrewts too, because they'd gotten busy with something else and it was a game that took more players than just Kara and Ryanne.

The one thing Kara figured out was how not to give up one single point for House Pukwudgie, and to her, a three-day run of noticing the fountain only rising higher, was a much-needed shot of confidence. She became familiar with her new Second Year routine, and felt like all she needed to hit her stride was to not get bullied.

And so, with butterflies threatening to burst from her stomach in the Main Hall at Dinner, the Friday night before Quidditch Tryouts, Kara ate her portions of stir fry, chili, and baklava, and hoped she could keep dinner down long enough to get herself off the hook.

"Mikkea," Kara interjected as Mikkea discussed the merits of a Wronsky Feint for a practice session with B.J. Foerster, House Pukwudgie's remaining Beater.

"—the idea would be to practice making it look real, long enough to get the other team to think it's real. I'm going for—"

"Mikkea!" Kara spoke up, and then noticed heads turn her way. She hadn't realized how loud she'd been, but the students went back to their conversations just a moment later.

"Kara?" Mikkea said.

"Sorry about that," Kara said. "I tried to talk to you before, but you were always busy."

"Sorry about that. There's a lot to discuss. The team's got to get ready for practice as much as tryouts, and we're getting lots of Practice O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.-preparation stuff in the mail. There's been a study-buddy thing I've been asked to join..."

Mikkea trailed off, then shook her head.

"Nevermind. I'm sorry. What did you want to tell me?"

She scooted aside and patted the bench. Kara sat down.

"I'm worried about tomorrow," she said.

"I am too," Mikkea said. But she went on about practices and scheduling. Kara shook her head.

"No, I don't mean like that," she said. "I mean, I'm worried I'd be accused of cheating if I try out."

Mikkea looked at her.

"This is about your Oculus Orb," Mikkea said, "isn't it?"

Kara nodded.

"I can't be a Seeker if I can spot a Snitch a mile away, can I?"

Mikkea chuckled:

"That's what Seekers are supposed to be _good_ at, right?"

"No, I mean—" Kara hadn't thought about it that way, but, "—I mean, I could see it anywhere, and my Oculus Orb would stay on it the whole time if I made it."

"We could Confund it for you, but that's not why I wanted you on the team," Mikkea said.

Kara felt like the floor just went away under her.

"What do you mean?"

Mikkea shrugged:

"I thought you seemed like a bit of a loner. Seekers tend to have that quality. They're observant. The other positions require you to be just as observant. Maybe it's because people pick on you for your—challenges."

"Challenges?" Kara asked.

"I'm trying to say this nicely," Mikkea said, "but people on other teams would think you couldn't do it. But I bet you could."

Kara was immediately conscious of her body, and how two years ago it had been seen as "whole." She could put two and two together.

"You mean you only wanted me because I have disabilities?"

"Kara?" Mikkea said, "No—I just—I mean—that's just one advantage!" She was still talking as Kara stood and stormed down the aisle toward the exit. If she could have cast a hurricane spell, she would have.

Kara was moving at a good enough pace that when she slammed into Professor Wesley, the Creature Care instructor, he dropped the caged niffler he'd just trapped on the grounds. The cage hit the floor, the latch popped open, and the animal scampered off.

"I'm sorry!" Kara said. She felt her face go hot, and she hurried to escape the scene.

"No!" he shouted as it raced into the dark. "That thing's been trying to dig into Professor De Leon's greenhouses for days!"

Kara was still heading toward the Common Room when she heard the dreaded word:

"_Detention_ Miss Poellnitz, or about fifty points from Pukwudgie!"

She froze mid-step.

"I said I'm _sorry_," she said, and then burst into tears, "I didn't mean to do it!"

"Then you can help me catch it. Your choice."

Tears streamed from her eyes as she stamped back to Professor Wesley.

"But I said I'm sorry."

"Okay, but—wait a second. _Lumos!_"

Professor Wesley's wand tip lit up.

"You're the perfect person for the job! Quick, the game's afoot!"

Admittedly, it was fun in a weird way to go after an escaped niffler. Professor Wesley explained that it would only go about twenty feet or less underground. But there wasn't an easy way to track it. He explained that he'd attracted it with something shiny as bait, but the tracks weren't as easy to see in the evening.

So once Kara was able to sight the tracks of the niffler, they pursued it to a new burrow, and Professor Wesley set up traps. They waited a couple of hours, and Professor Wesley asked Kara why she was moving so fast indoors. She explained.

"I'm sorry," she concluded.

"That's okay. Things happen, and I might not have been looking where I was going either."

Then they heard one of the traps spring, and this time, Professor Wesley brought his catch back to the Creature Care classroom and locked the animal in a large but comfortable looking cage.

"What's going to happen to it?" Kara asked.

"We ship them back to Britain," Professor Wesley replied, "They're a native species over there, but here in North America, they're invasive. Are you interested in learning more about them?"

"Isn't Creature Care a Third Year course?"

"If you want to study it, you can still look up topics in the library."

Kara was somewhat fascinated by the creature up close, but she was tired, and she needed to go to bed.

"It is kind of interesting," she said, but she yawned hard. "But I've got to go to bed."

"You're dismissed," Professor Wesley said. "Thank you for helping."

Kara was so tired that she imagined herself falling asleep on the way back to House Pukwudgie's Common Room. She muttered the password without recalling that she did it, and collapsed into her bed and fell asleep before undressing. She was half-asleep when somebody shifted her body and pulled a blanket over her.

In her dream, of all things, she was chased by a gigantic niffler as she tried to get a busted old Nimbus 1000 to work.

"Yikes!" she shouted, just as the niffler swung its massive paw and shattered the tree behind her.

And Kara was wide awake.

"Kara, are you okay?" Ryanne asked. She was wearing pajama bottoms and a football jersey with large numbers on the front.

Alexandra and Cienna were also up, but they'd already started dressing. It was Saturday, so school uniforms weren't required. Kara pushed off the blankets and noted her leg had rolled onto the floor. After putting her leg back on, she changed into jeans, a tank top shirt, and a sweatshirt. She kept the left sleeve straight instead of rolling it up.

"Weren't you going to try out for Quidditch?" Cienna asked.

Kara shook her head.

She went through her morning routine, but decided to wear her hair in the "natural" look, so she combed her hair, but used a plain hair tie to keep it out of her face. When she was ready, she went down to the Common Room to see who else was up.

Avi wasn't there, nor Mikkea, Rod, Carmine, or Liseth. But it was just as well, because Kara didn't want to bump into them. She let herself out past the Pukwudgie archer statue and heard the door to the Common Room seal itself behind her. Taking a shortcut through the grounds, Kara felt the crisp feel of the early morning air, saw a handful of trees with leaves just beginning to turn, and breathed easily.

This would be easier if nobody else had to question her. She could stay in the Common Room, or the Library, or hang out indoors where she was sure to run into people playing games, drawing, studying, or doing something that did not involve ridiculing her for something that wasn't her fault—or worse, expecting her to perform for them just to prove that they were tolerant of somebody's differences.

She walked the grounds toward the Main Hall entrance, but then remembered she was up a bit early. Breakfast wasn't served yet: the lights weren't on inside the Hall. She walked into the Entrance Hall and stood on the Gordian Knot where Sorting was done.

It didn't feel the same—it didn't feel quite as magical as the experience she had when she first came. Maybe because it was morning and not evening, and the torches, lamps, and candles had been lit, or because the gray-blue light of the brightening sky didn't match that crimson sunset approaching purple night.

But the Pukwudgie carving lifted its arrow nonetheless.

Kara would have dismissed it as a "trick of the lighting" if she hadn't seen it with her _good_ eye.

Her heart skipped a beat, and the idea of going or not going to Quidditch tryouts, being on or off the team, and the idea of being or not being disabled left her in a whirlwind.

"Pukwudgie is sometimes said to represent the heart of a witch," a voice spoke from behind.

Kara spun to see an ancient looking being, half her height, who held up a hand in greeting or farewell, before turning and leaving. She blinked, focused her eyes—her good eye—and looked again, but the pukwudgie was gone. She dashed to the entrance and looked out on the stone path leading downhill to the edge of the woods.

There was only empty grass, without a trace of footprints.

She realized she'd regret not trying out, and took the quickest route back to her dormitory.

Kara arrived a minute or two late for breakfast, with her retention strap fastened snug around her head. It made her Oculus Orb stand out, but she knew her left eye wouldn't budge without her choosing to move it.

She heard Cienna talking to another girl about how Kara jumped after her nightmare:

"I would have freaked out too," Cienna said.

"Way to enhance the 'ugly' look, Puke Wedgie!" Maury shouted across the room. And when Kara didn't pay attention to him, Mikkea looked up and smiled.

"Over here, Kara," Avi motioned her to an empty spot at the table.

She sat beside Avi, who was across from Ryanne.

"I like your flowers," Ryanne said.

"Flowers?—oh, those!" Kara remembered being fitted for the strap at the Ophthalmancy clinic and selecting one with decorative flower designs that graced the ring that held her crystal eyepiece. There was a smaller and a larger decorative flower fastened on the headband part. She could reposition or remove if she wanted, and she'd forgotten they were there. The clear dome of crystal retained the Oculus Orb and was made with spells that made it unbreakable.

"So you're going to try out?" Avi asked.

Kara felt butterflies in her stomach again, but she nodded:

"Yes, I am."

She ate a generous scoop of fruit salad, two hard-boiled eggs, and two slices of toast, and washed them all down with pumpkin juice.

Mikkea came over and asked to have a quick chat.

"Sure," Kara said. She scooted over.

"No," Mikkea nodded toward the door to the Main Hall.

"Oh, okay," Kara said. They walked out to the hallway and Mikkea looked both ways to see they were alone.

"I'm sorry for what I said," Mikkea said. "I didn't mean to emphasize—"

"I wasn't always like this," Kara said.

"I know. Avi yelled at me after you left—"

"He did?"

"But he told me what happened. I'm sorry I said what I did."

Kara wasn't sure if Mikkea was apologizing for real, or if it was just because she knew the truth.

She wanted to turn away and go back to get another glass of pumpkin juice, but there was a look in the older girl's eyes.

"Okay," Kara said.

"It must have been hard dealing with everything," Mikkea said.

"You don't have to feel sorry for me," Kara said.

"That's not what I mean. I mean you're probably stronger because of it. It doesn't mean it wasn't _hard_, though, right?"

Kara smiled.

"It was," Kara said, "but you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"Just let me know if I say anything else stupid, okay?" Mikkea said. She smiled.

"I'll do that," Kara said. "I promise."

Mikkea laughed. She held out her hand, and Kara shook it.

As Mikkea turned back to the door, she paused.

"So—about the Quidditch tryouts?"

"That's what _this_ is for," Kara said, and feigned straightening her retaining strap.

The sky wasn't clear, but it wasn't totally cloudy over the Quidditch pitch either. Mikkea explained the Quaffle, the Bludgers, and the Snitch, and explained:

"Everything's going to be fair. Everybody's going to try out for everything—even the people from last year's roster. I want to make sure you understand how it all works, even if you end up playing different positions."

That meant a lot of trying from a lot of people. Mikkea had three or four other people from Pukwudgie—one of the Prefects, an instructor Kara didn't recognize, even a few other fans who didn't want to try out. They all watched the different tryouts and took down notes.

When they picked numbers for which order to try out, Kara ended up trying out as Seeker second to last.

Playing Keeper was fun, but it got stressful. After several blocks, shots started getting through the rings. She knew she could stop some of them, but she felt like she was the wrong person to play Keeper. Playing Chaser was too hard for her, and she kept going into a roll. At first, she thought it was the old Cleansweep broom that belonged to the school, but the more she played, she more she felt like she was imbalanced—not in a bad way—just not in a useful way for the team if she tried to handle the Quaffle.

When she wanted to speed up, she felt like she lost a little more control of the roll. Mikkea noticed it too, and told Kara to switch brooms—but that still didn't stop it.

"Maybe I shouldn't be on the team—" Kara said.

Mikkea glared at her before she could finish her thought.

Kara heard air roaring in her ears as she charged after the practice Snitch. It darted, zoomed, and charged back at her, zipping between her fingers as it flew. It moved too quick for her to spin on the broom, and she rolled to the right and had to correct with a wide turn. But she kept at it. Her good eye sighted the glint of its silver wings, and she charged again. Just as her fingers nearly closed on it, it put on another fresh burst of speed. She pulled up on the broom with the crook of her left elbow as the Snitch gained altitude, heading for the clouds and accelerating.

"This is bonkers," she said as it instantly changed direction and dove like a bird of prey. She felt the air off it as it grazed past her head, and she had to do a barrel roll just to get back into the dive.

She had to grip the broom handle with her right hand to keep control, and corrected for the umpteenth time after rolling right and going off course.

And then the Snitch practically crashed into the grass and flew horizontally at a ninety degree angle.

"This is nuts!" Kara shouted. "There's something wrong with the Snitch." It blew over the bleachers—and then she realized:

"It's going out of bounds. That's not supposed to happen."

She chased it as it dove again, and went into a roll that forced her to follow, correcting her course each phase of the turn. It ascended rapidly, and then, dove harder than before into a spiral. Kara followed its dizzying course, and suddenly felt her broom fishtail.

Then it was spinning all by itself, and she couldn't get it to stop. Sky and ground, trees and grass whipped in a blurry circle that even her good eye had a hard time deciphering.

And the ground came rushing up to—

"_Arresto momentum!_"

Kara stared at the blades of grass tickling her face. She let go of the broomstick and slumped to the ground.

From a distance, she heard shattering glass, a scream, and one of the other kids pointed.

"The Astronomy Tower!"

There was a Snitch-sized hole in one of its windows.

"What the heck?" Mikkea asked.

"Somebody Confunded it," Lamar Tyler said.

"More than that, it looked Uncatchable," Mikkea said, "It's been Baggsnitched."

"What? What's that?" Kara asked.

"Baggsnitching is one of the seven hundred fouls in Quidditch," Mikkea said, "It's bewitching the Snitch so it becomes Uncatchable!"

Kara didn't think before pulling her wand from her sweatshirt's right pocket:

"_Accio Snitch_," she said, with a quick little half-circle flick of the wand.

"You aren't supposed to know that—"

But the Snitch did come back. It beat furiously with its wings, and it took eight minutes to return. It was still in the air, fighting fiercely while Kara patiently kept her wand and her good eye's gaze fixed on it.

"That's not supposed to happen, for sure," B.J. Foerster said. "Summoning Charms are supposed to work a lot faster."

Kara shifted and saw a shadow shift behind part of the bleachers. She kept the Snitch in her right eye, and used her left eye to check the bleachers. It was a person, not just a shadow.

"Do you see somebody over in the bleachers?"

Mikkea looked.

"There _is_ somebody over there!" she shouted.

The person bolted—and just like that, the Snitch went limp and raced toward Mikkea. Kara's heart skipped a beat: Mikkea wasn't looking. Kara jumped, swung her right arm up, and smacked the Snitch. Kara heard the loud _whap_ it made, felt the sting of the cold metal before the Snitch hit dirt, and then felt pain sear her palm.

"Oww!" Kara cradled her right hand in the crook of her left elbow.

The professor Kara didn't recognize—she wondered if he taught Arithmancy or some class she wasn't old enough for yet—leaped onto a broom and chased the runner, and several other students ran to see.

"What was _that_ about?" Kara asked.

"Mister Redstone!" the professor's voice boomed. He landed in front of the student who bolted. Kara watched the professor escort Mister Redstone—_Maury_ Redstone—back to Mikkea.

Kara shook her right hand, and the pain subsided.

"Professor Gray!" Mikkea approached him.

"As soon as he ran, the spell broke, and—"

Kara noticed the gold and silver bits in the dirt. She reached down and fingered a piece of the wing. One of the wings was bent, and snapped off halfway up, while the other was a couple feet away, still fluttering, on the ground. The metal parts of the Snitch's body had popped open, revealing a couple of tiny broken magical gizmos.

"You _broke_ that _Snitch_," Mikkea said.

"I didn't mean to," Kara said, "It was coming right at your head!"

"I saw that too," Professor Gray said, "I used to be a Seeker. That Snitch was moving fast enough it could have hurt you, Miss Dorset."

He turned to Kara:

"That was good work on your part, Miss Poellnitz."

Kara felt her face go hot.

"Thank you, Professor Gray."

"Is your hand okay?"

Kara let Professor Gray look at her right hand for a moment.

"You seem fine, but the skin might bruise. You pack a wallop, Miss Poellnitz."

Kara couldn't think of anything to say, but smiled.

"By the way, Mister Redstone, Baggsnitching—making a Snitch Uncatchable—is a foul during official Quidditch play. It's unsportsmanlike conduct, and unbecoming of Ilvermorny students."

Maury looked downcast.

"I'm deducting twenty points from House Thunderbird, and I'm giving you three days' detention in my classroom. You can go now, but see me Monday after dinner."

Maury made himself scarce.

Mikkea looked at Kara, and Kara could tell—with or without her good eye—that she was thinking something over.

"You know something," Mikkea said, "I think you're probably not Seeker material."

Kara felt a surge of relief:

"Good riddance! After all that, I don't _want_ to chase that thing."

But Mikkea had a conniving look, and it didn't put Kara at ease.

"I think you'd be better on a more stable broom—not quite as fast, but with better balance, so you can take out anything coming at our teammates."

Mikkea looked at Professor Gray.

"What do you think?"

"It is your team," he said, "but you might be onto something."

Kara looked from one to the other.

"How would you like to be one of our Beaters?"

Kara thought she was going to hate the Beater tryout, but she accepted one of the school's old Comet brooms anyway, and kicked off. The club felt clumsy and heavy, but the broom remained rock steady, even with her hands off the broomstick. It responded well when she shifted her hips, and stayed balanced hands-free. She waited for the signal when the Bludger was going to get released, and half-expected to get a thrashing.

What happened instead was exhilarating. She watched the ball go off with a _woosh_ and travel toward the far end of the pitch, before it braked and came back toward her in a rush.

Kara hefted the bat, which shifted her seat on the broomstick, but the broom just scooted over, and stayed under her. The Bludger came closer, and Kara wound up her swing, and made the bat connect with it.

_ Whock! _went the bat as it sent the Bludger reeling off past the central circle and almost all the way back to the goal rings. The next Bludger was released and took off.

She patrolled the field, moving to watch for either Bludger when she sighted one coming up fast.

She delivered the blow cross-body and felt the satisfying contact as the Bludger deflected. A moment later, she heard another loud contact, and saw Mikkea signal to her.

Kara hovered over toward Mikkea.

"Was that bad?" she asked once Mikkea pointed at a Bludger that was jammed into the dirt.

"No," Mikkea panted. "Did you see that?"

"No, I just hit it away."

"You hit the one that knocked the other one down."

"_I_ did that?"

Kara realized she was grinning.

"So, do you want to be a Beater, or not?" Mikkea asked.

Kara thought of the Pukwudgie lifting its arrow to her.

"If I make the cut, right?"

"I think you just _did_, Kara."

Kara couldn't wait to see the look on Maury's eyes.


End file.
